This image released by NASA August 9, 2012 shows a view AFP PHOTO/HANDOUT/ NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems taken by Mastcam: Left (MAST_LEFT) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 3 ... more

Photo: HO, AFP/Getty Images

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When Curiosity headed to Mars earlier this month, only one thing soared higher than the rover — the curiosity of the earthlings below.

If the journey was breathtaking, however, so were the results of that journey — the incredible photos of a land we had known, up until then, only through science fiction movies.

But the project did more than captivate a nation; it revived interest in space exploration, providing it with the single biggest jolt since the moon landing in 1969.

Two federal lawmakers — Republican U.S. Reps. John Culberson of Houston and Frank Wolf of Virginia — have taken that renewed interest and run with it, drafting legislation that would remove NASA from the budgetary whims of the party in power.

Despite the success of the rover Curiosity, for example, President Obama plans massive cuts to the NASA budget, from $587 million in 2013 to $360.8 million in 2014, Robert Zubrin, president of the Mars Society, wrote in a recent letter to The New York Times.

This move would be significant because the OMB is subject to the political vagaries of the current president, a policy that has hindered space exploration, according to experts.

The lawmakers also propose budgets approved in multiple-year cycles, a change that would sustain long-term projects.

“Our economy depends on many things, but science, engineering and technology represent a huge portion of its support,” Discovery Magazine stated earlier this year in an opinion piece on NASA budgeting.

Space exploration has significant ramifications for areas such as health and agriculture; it is no exaggeration to say that the well-being of our planet may well depend on the exploration of other planets beyond our narrow system.